Creating a Professional Learning Network in your school
Before creating a PLN in your school consider the following:
- What kind of resources do you want to use?
- Who you want to connect with?
- How do you want to learn about various resources?
Step 1: Use a type of technology (Twitter, Edmodo, etc.) to connect with other teachers in your building.
Twitter is a very popular resource among teachers today and is very easy for colleagues to connect and collaborate with one another. Edmodo is another great educational resource that teachers often use to share ideas. It is important that all teachers in your school are connected in some way so that when a resource is shared everyone has access to it.
Step 2: Make time to build your PLN
Building a PLN takes a lot of time and effort. Try and encourage your colleagues to spend a little time each day searching for helpful resources and sharing them on your school's PLN. Something as simple as sharing a great lesson idea that worked really well for you in your class would be a great example of a quality post to your school's PLN.
Step 3: Use Blogs and Curation tools as a part of your PLN
Blogging is an excellent way to reflect, collaborate, exchange ideas, and connect with other people. One of the best features about a blog is that it is constantly being updated with new information and ideas. Adding a blog to your school's PLN provides endless information to teachers and allows them to reflect and respond. Incorporating the use of curation tools in your school's PLN helps teachers find, organize, and manage information and resources on specific topics. It is also a great way to make sure that the information is always current and accurate.
Step 4: Making Connections
The more information that you share with your school, the more you will get in return. Once your school's PLN has grown teachers will be more motivated to find and share more resources. If a colleague comments on your blog or post then be sure to comment back! Professional Learning Networks are all about conversation and sharing idea's with one another. Finally, never stop looking for new ways to communicate and collaborate with your colleagues.